Sunday with the Wilkersons

A typical Sunday starts with Jared heading off to meetings and me scrambling to get both boys ready, myself presentable, the snacks packed, the blankies gathered, and lugging everything/ everyone to the car. The boys and I are pretty much always late.

Sacrament meeting consists of passing snacks to Micah as fast as he can stuff them into his face while simultaneously catching Luke before he topples over the seat because he is standing up to look for Ms. Keegan or Caleb or Brother Harmon or whoever it is that has popped into his head at the moment. It also consists of handing out band-aides. No-- no one is hurt. It is just the toy of choice. Other activities include clamping a hand over Luke's face when he starts to demand VERY loudly to go to the urinal to pee pee, playing "which crayon is not yellow" over and over again, and looking at a few books.

Honestly, though, Luke has actually gotten to the point that, though a good amount of shushing is required, he can make it through the entire meeting. Micah makes it through the sacrament portion of the meeting on a good day (even given the fact that we were late getting there.) So he and Jared often spend most of the meeting hiding out in the Relief Society room where Micah can move and Jared can (sort of) still listen. Usually I stay in sacrament meeting with Luke.

But yesterday Luke wiped Gluten-free cracker mess all over his pants, and the typical didn't quite pan out. I (not thinking) used a wet wipe to clean him up, and it was the end of the world. "I need new pants! I need new pants!" He CANNOT tolerate ANY wetness on his clothes. He was trying to strip down right there on the first row of the overflow, and I tried to distract him by suggesting we find D and Micah. It worked. He was distracted, but the rest of the meeting was a wash. Here is what happened in the Relief Society room during the 2 1/2 minutes that we (mostly) didn't step in to stop to them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvQjP3rv5Q

Energy much?

The day progressed with Micah crying in nursery and being brought to us. I walked laps outside during the second half of Sunday school to put Micah to sleep (the stroller ALWAYS comes with us to church.) Micah finally fell asleep and I parked him in Elders Quorum and made it to Relief Society. About 10 minutes before the meeting ended I saw Luke's teacher. I went out to see what's going on, and there was Luke standing in the hallway trying to get his pants off. Apparently a tiny drop of hand sanitizer fell on his pants. He was crying that he needed new ones. Well, I didn't have extra pants, but I did have some spare shorts. So this is how Luke finished off the day:

And off we went to check out the GIANT air conditioner before heading home.

Yep, in our family Sunday is DEFINITELY a day of rest.

Student Egg Hunt

The Saturday before Easter one of our friends put together an egg hunt for the LDS students' kids. About 6 families showed up which was really the perfect number. Luke and Micah both understood about hunting eggs this year, so it was a lot of fun to watch them find the eggs. Can you see Luke rearing to go?

And they're off! My kids took a bit of a running start:

"Look Mom! An aquamarine one!"

Micah stopped at the first egg he found, bit it open, and just went to town. I guess we need to work on delayed gratifaction.

Not sure what this face was all about:

Micah spent the rest of the morning raiding people's Easter baskets. I constantly found him with this look:

(basically the "my mouth is so full of candy I'm about to throw up" look) Awesome!

Also that morning Micah decided he was brave enough to go down the slide all by himself. I got the best pictures EVER!

Luke's Spring Break

The one event that I actually got pictures of during Luke's spring break was a visit to the Virginia Living Museum with one of his teachers, Ms. Ginger, and her 2 kids. Luke and Camden are the same age, and Luke was so excited to see the otters with his friend!

Looking at the ducks

I had a talk with Luke beforehand about going slowly so that his friends could look around. He usually beelines through the exhibits to get to his favorite things (which are not the animals-- he wants to get to the ceiling fans, etc.) He did a pretty good job waiting for Camden.

Micah spent most of the time trying to climb in and out of his stroller over and over AND OVER! He is constantly climbing! So he got buckled in and had to suffer the consequence of his bravery. I kept him calm by feeding him.

Everyone was happy once we got to the forestry exhibit. Micah ran around from one thing to another. And Luke and Camden played with 2 ball exhibits for at least 40 min. I think they would have been happy to stay all day! I wish we could have stayed a bit longer, but Micah was getting tired and hungry.

Micah would steal bottles from the Ranger's house exhibit and carry them around to other parts of the room. Here he is sucking on the soap bottle in the tent. I don't even want to know how dirty that bottle is, but I'd be willing to bet it had been in another mouth before his. I took it away right after snapping the picture.

This was a favorite of both Luke and Micah. You turn the crank in the middle and it creates the energy to work the switches. Any guess as to what Luke kept turing off and on? Micah wasn't strong enough to turn the crank fast enough to make the switches work, but he didn't care. The turning action was what he liked anyway.

One of the ball exhibits

So we went to the VLM on Wednesday of his spring break. On Thursday night we met the Taylors at Chickahominy Riverfront park where they were camping (right here in town.) We didn't want to stay overnight, but we were happy to come for dinner. We roasted hot dogs and made S'mores. The boys chucked rocks into the water and ran around chasing friends. It was the most fun evening I had had in a long, long time! And it made Jared and I contemplate the need for a good tent...

We did something fun everyday that week, although I can't remember now everything that we did. I remember a trip to the "library what has ceiling fans" and a long walk in CW. All in all, it was a great little break.

Plum Tuckered Out

A week or so ago I had a meeting one night, so Jared was in charge of doing Luke's listening therapy and getting him into bed. I guess he was really tired because this is how he fell asleep:

Waffles and WHAT?!!!

Jared commented a few weeks ago that we hadn't had waffles in a long time. I took that as a hint, so I made waffles for dinner one night. As I mixed up the batter I plugged in the waffle iron to heat up. After a bit, I started to smell something weird. I opened the iron and found this:

Apparently Luke was pretending this CD was a waffle.

So, note to self: Next time you let Luke play with one of your kitchen appliances, check it before you put it away!

Nemesis

This is Luke's nemesis:

This kind is even worse because sometimes it turns on when one just walks past it. This REALLY terrifies Luke.

Luke's biggest, most all-encompassing fear is of public restrooms and all that they entail. He hates automatic flushers. A friend of mine taught me a trick to help with this fear: she carries a pad of sticky notes in her diaper bag and slaps one over the sensor so it won't go off and scare her kid to death. Genius! But it isn't just the automatic part that scares Luke. He is scared of the sound of ANY flushing. Even in our own house he runs out of the bathroom with his pants down half the time. He waits until the toilet is done flushing and re-filling and THEN he'll go back and wash his hands.

Public restrooms are ten times scarier (or more) than our house toilet because he doesn't know how the toilet will sound. So he stands in front of the toilet shaking and swearing that he doesn't actually have to go, or that he just wants to go at "Luke's house" or any other number of excuses while I try to calm him down so that he can just try. Figuring out what to do with Micah while I also try to comfort Luke is an adventure all in itself. One time I was helping Luke go to the bathroom at the library. He was shaking. I was rubbing his back and telling him it was okay, swearing the toilet wasn't scary, promising he could do the light switches when he was done. Meanwhile Micah was in the next stall over splashing happily in the toilet. A woman walked in, took one look at the situation, stated emphatically that she'd just come back later, and fled the scene.

Once Luke knows what to expect he does better. He can usually pee in a specific public place again with little problem after he's done it once. So he WILL use the restroom at Martin's grocery store, the library, and a few bathrooms at Colonial Williamsburg. This does not, however, apply to Wal-mart since the bathrooms always have other occupants besides just us. He doesn't know when a toilet will flush, he doesn't know if and when the hand dryers will turn on. He's a nervous wreck in a Wal-mart bathroom. Although things have gotten a lot better since Luke has learned that MOST people will be nice and NOT use a hand dryer if they understand his fear.

This is how he learned this (to him) most valuable lesson. We were at CW and Micah needed a diaper change. Our regular bathroom at the Governor's Palace was closed, so we had to go to a different one. This bathroom had multiple stalls (we usually go to a family restroom that is an individual room), and it HAD A HAND DRYER. As we went in another woman followed us in also. Luke literally dug in his heels and refused to move. He was trembling. He was crying. I told him that I wouldn't use the hand dryer, but he kept looking to the stall that the woman had entered. He just didn't trust that woman. I explained to Luke that the lady looked very nice and that if we just asked her not to use it, she probably wouldn't do it. Luke took that to heart and ran to her stall door. He stood outside it screaming, "DON'T USE THE HAND DRYER! DON'T USE THE HAND DRYER!" Thank Goodness! She swore that she wouldn't. Then some other ladies came in. Luke ran to them and frantically begged/ shouted "DON'T USE THE HAND DRYER!" Heaven be praised, every single one of those kind old ladies swore to him that they wouldn't use it. And they all began telling stories of their little granddaughter or grandson who was also scared of them...yahta yahta yahta. So now any time we enter a public restroom with a hand dryer, Luke proceeds from stall to stall shouting at every single person NOT TO USE THE HAND DRYER. I am so thankful there are good and understanding people in this world, and especially in Wal-mart. The kind ladies there will stand sentinel while Luke is in his stall and make sure that newcomers know the rule. God bless every single one of them!

In the meantime this is how we are dealing. When we have a string of errands to run, Luke wears a pull-up. When possible I just avoid the scene all together.

And more exciting, perhaps, Luke has started a daily listening therapy with the help of his outpatient OT. He wears special headphones that have AMAZING sound quality and listens to special CDs. The CDs play somewhat distorted classical music that helps him assimilate to certain sound frequencies that bother him. I think it is helping. He is at least more tolerant of the music. When we first started he would tell me that he was "all done listening," after just 5 minutes or so. Now he will listen the full 30 minutes without even complaining. We usually play games while he is listening: Go fish, number dots, blocks. But his very favorite is "Silly Hats" (Cranium-- the adult version-- modified for Luke.)

I hope there's a hand dryer frequency on there!

Sleepover!

Two weeks ago I watched a friend's children for her while she and her husband went on an overnight trip. Luke was so excited to have a "sleepover."

I wasn't as cool of a baby-sitter as I planned to be, mostly because I ended up bringing Luke and Micah with me. But I think we still had a good time-- the kids built a fort and watched a movie in it.

And in the morning, I let them put chocolate milk in their breakfast cereal.

That makes me pretty cool, right?

UH OH!

Micah learned how to climb last night!

And suddenly my TV barrier doesn't keep him away from the buttons!

It Turns Out...

that Walgreens is a great place to buy toys! We found lots of great deals-- Don't worry, Mom! I didn't get most of them! A couple months ago, during the time that Micah was going from one infection to another, we wandered the toy aisles while we waited for his prescription. That was when I realized that there is awesome stuff at Walgreens for cheaper than you can find the same toys at Wal-mart (but admittedly a much smaller selection). Anyway, Luke had a few birthday parties coming up and wanted to get his friend Tucker a tent. I remembered seeing one at Walgreens, so we headed over. We scored TWO great tents for 10 bucks a piece-- (the same ones were $20 on Amazon) and the boys had SO MUCH FUN playing in their tent.

Micah figured out that if he crawled around in there he could make the tent do sommersaults. (How do you spell that word?!!), and he crashed the tent into everything in the living room laughing and having a ball. Luke spent most of his time closing the door only to pop it open again and start all over. He also pulled blankets in there and "took a nap," sorted his balls, and hid in it repeatedly during a game of hide-and-seek.

When we were at Walgreens I also saw (but didn't get) some Fisher Price Little People toys for about $5 dollars cheaper than they sell them at Wal-mart. They had some baby Disney Princess dolls for about $5 dollars cheaper too. Playdough sets. All kinds of things. So if your Easter Bunny gives presents or if you have a birthday party coming up, check out your local Walgreens!

Mee-Kee Pants!

Micah has a lot of nicknames. And out of the lot (a whole lot) quite a few are actually very unattractive. Mee-Kee Pants is one of those. But he gets called that A LOT. Poor kid! I blame Jared for starting this one, but we really are mean parents.

Micah has been busier the past few weeks, and I just realized I haven't blogged about any of his activities/ goings-on. So here's a synopsis:

I emailed Micah's used-to-be physical therapist at CDR (Child Development Services), which is Virginia's birth-three program, in late January about some concerns and questions I had about Micah. My primary concern was regarding language. Micah didn't have any words (not that big of a deal), didn't use many gestures to communicate (a bigger deal-- he wasn't pointing and made little effort to communicate much at all), and also didn't seem to understand language. He didn't respond to questions like, "Where's Mama?" at all. He also seemed to have some sensory over-sensitivity which made me nervous because of Luke's history. His therapist recommend another evaluation, so we started the process all over again.

It took almost a month before the full evaluation by which time he was making requests for things by bringing us objects and also by screaming or whining. He also responded (just sometimes) to words like Mama and Dada. This time he was screened by an early childhood special education teacher and a speech therapist. The special ed teacher said she didn't see anything to be concerned about regarding his socialization because he did communicate through eye contact and some body movements (plus he was starting to reach and vocalize); he was interested in the people in the room; he sought out contact with adults. She also said that his sensory issues were not severe enough to warrant real concern. I should just keep an eye on him. The speech pathologist further expounded on all the things that count as communication. So I realized that Micah was communicating more than I realized. I was getting the messages he was giving and responding. I just wasn't "counting" his communication as communication. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Anyway. But the speech pathologist noted substantial (for a 15 mo. old) delays in receptive and expressive language.

So Micah started speech therapy once a week. I know, I know. A lot of you are thinking that seems extreme for a 16 month old baby. But if the intervention is available I say, "Why not?" And it has been very helpful. I do and always did the things I knew a "good" parent does. Jared and I both did. We read to our boys, sang to our boys, talked to our boys. I would just talk about all kinds of things while I drove because it was drilled into me that I needed to expose my kids to language. But for whatever reason my children don't just pick it up like a lot of kids do. Exposure is not enough. They need explicit instruction. They need planned out strategies. And I don't know all those strategies and what-not, not having a degree in speech pathology. So the sessions with Micah are really training sessions for me to know what I should work on during the rest of the week.

After 2 sessions and a lot of newly implemented strategies around the house (and a very good book later) Micah signs MORE on his own to make a request for more food or to play a game/ read a book again, responds to a few "routine" words like EAT and BATH, shouts "Up-ah!" (up) on a regular basis (That is definitely his first consistent word!), Mama (every once in awhile), dog. He is making some animal sounds, and he is mimicking other words too. He says "Baa!" for bath, "bah" for ball, and I know he says more but I can't think of them.

His therapist suggested that I get Micah into the CDR play group. He had his first play date on Friday. I was expecting him to struggle and get upset, but he went right in and just started exploring. He didn't need me at all! So I went into the observation room to see if he would be alright even without me there. He was a champ! I think partly it was because the room and the teachers were amazing. There were 5 kids and 4 adults. There were stations spread out throughout the room-- it was pretty much a kid's paradise. There was a "library" area, a train station, a car station, a kitchen area, a dress-up area, tables with gears and puzzles attached, slides, an obstacle course. And more. It was incredible! They had a snack time. Micah sat down in the chair with all the bigger kids and ate his crackers. Then they gave the kids applesauce. They let Micah feed himself (which he thoroughly enjoyed!) and I realized that I haven't given him much opportunity to feed himself. So we've been working on that this week. It's a messy business!